Puma Energy Sells Fuels Business to Chevron Australia

Singapore's Puma Energy, the retail and midstream arm of global commodities trader Trafigura, said on Thursday it would sell its Australian commercial and retail fuels business to Chevron Australia for A$425 million ($288 million).

Puma Energy is 49%-owned by Geneva-based Trafigura, which is under pressure to rebalance its books after a decade-long buying spree.

Trafigura last week reported its lowest annual net profit in nearly a decade after a string of losses in its physical asset portfolio.

Puma Energy was among Trafigura's loss-making businesses, with a net loss of nearly $500 million for the nine months to Sept. 30, and was in the process of being overhauled.

Puma said its bitumen business in Australia was not part of the transaction.

($1 = 1.4736 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru; Editing by Tom Hogue)